This invention proposes a handling-switching apparatus comprising a number of conveyor tables, each constituted by a rotating carpet on which the piece to be handled is placed and that is dragged along a loop path developing on a vertical plane.
A characteristic of the invention is that means suitable to keep in the horizontal position even in that part of their path that connects the upper to the lower section of the path, are provided. Handling-switching apparatuses in which the pieces to be handled are placed on a carriage fitted with a rotating carpet that constitutes the conveyor table and that is dragged along a fixed path, specifically a loop path developing on a vertical plane, are known.
In some of such apparatuses unloading takes place by tilting the carriage and setting the carpet to rotation, to unload the piece towards underlying collecting devices.
One of such apparatuses is known through the Italian Patent Application MI A 2213 dated Jun. 8, 1991 of the same applicant.
In such handling-switching apparatuses carriages with carpets are dragged by a pair of belts or chains, that are driven by gearwheels provided at both ends of the apparatus.
The path includes then two sections, an upper and a lower one, said sections being essentially rectilinear and connected by two semicircular sections.
The pieces are introduced into the machine in correspondence with loading areas provided at the apparatus head ends and are unloaded when they come to pass in correspondence with some collecting devices suitably predisposed, associated with that piece in a known way by means of a coding operation at the moment of loading.
In known apparatuses the carriages, passing from the upper to the lower section of their path or conversely, perform a 180.degree. rotation, thereby overturning.
Owing to this reason, it is necessary that the pieces be unloaded before the carriage reaches the end of the rectilinear section of its path, and this constitutes a remarkable operating limitation.